By now we all know that the creators of DC Universe Online were working on a Marvel MMO, and that MMO has officially been cancelled. Well, now we have a bit of an idea of what it would have looked like thanks to Ramiro Galan, one of the artists who worked on the game. He shared these images on various social media platforms after it was officially announced that the game was dead.
In a description, he talks about how they were going for stylized tones that paid homage to Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse but personally I think they lean a bit heavier into Pixar territory or possibly Spies in Disguise.
We can also see from the first image that we were going to be able to pick from four different factions inside the game; X-Men, Avengers, SHIELD, or the Fantastic Four. Sadly there isn’t really any information that explains what these different factions may have meant in terms of gameplay. Hopefully one day we might be able to learn more about the game, but for now we will just have to enjoy these pictures and speculate on what might have been.
This is of course not the first time a Marvel MMO has been canceled. In fact, despite Marvel being one of the biggest intellectual properties in the world, when it comes to multiplayer games Marvel has had some pretty bad luck. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least bit if this was the end of the road for Marvel MMOs. The MMO genre has been dying for quite a few years now so it was a surprise that a Marvel MMO was even being developed.
I had a feeling when it was announced that Jack Emmert was put in charge of NetEase’s new studio that the Marvel MMO was done for. The announcement for which came just a few weeks later. Jack Emmert has had a hand in just about every one of the big super hero MMOs including City of Heroes, Champions Online, and DCUO. It honestly makes me wonder if NetEase is working on a superhero game. Or maybe after 20 years Jack has moved on to develop other games. Only time will tell.
I would like to say a special thank you to Ramiro Galan for posting the images from the Marvel MMO. I’m sure that he had permission to do so before he did it as it was done quite publicly. He does state in his post that all design, 3D materials, lighting, and post process FX were done by him. So thanks again Ramiro and best of luck in your next game development journey. You’ve gained a new fan today.
All of the images used in this article have been posted publicly by Ramiro Galan. I claim no ownership over them, I am simply sharing them as a member of the press. Be sure to stop by Ramiro’s Artstation account to check out more of his amazing work.
